I can remember reading an IBM white paper on this some years ago. The goal
was to develop something which looks, feels and weighs like a book, except
that all the pages (which again should look, feel and flex like at least
shiny/photographic quality paper) would initially  be blank. On the spine
would be an LCD type display using which you would select the title you
wanted, and the text would be downloaded to the page!

Would it replace books/libraries?

Tricky - the current arguments about the book over the e-book, is its form
factor, plus the difficult many have reading large mounts of text from a
screen (typically anything more than a few pages gets dumped to the
printer). If realised, the ideal of digital/electronic ink as in the IBM
paper, then I do think that it would catch on (the robust editions could be
made waterproof to make reading whilst waiting for trains in the rain or
even in the bath less danger fraught).

Whether it would replace the traditional book is a very different question
to whether it will replace libraries - *I* will still stock my personal
bookshelves regardless and I suspect many  book-collectors will still do so
- but then book-collectors are not typical library users (after all for most
purposes they have their own private one), except for books that they cannot
obtain. The specialist/copyright/rarebook libraries will probably survive
unchanged though.

The public library may not survive in its current form - but then the public
libraries are moving far beyond the remit of public book collections towards
that of a community information centre. Similarily with the academic library
who will not need to stock books available via the electronic ink - just
those items not available by such means, and continue developing their role
in terms of information services etc.

There is the question of who supplies the text you download, and also an
emergent charging scheme akin to that which the music industry is discussing
adopting, whereby you only lease the text for a certain time (the music
industry in some ways is keen on some aspects on MP3 download technology, in
that you buy the right to download and listen to a peice of music or a set
time, rather than the CD approach where in effect you buy a "life" time
license), repaying if you access the same text at another time. This would
need to be handled carefully - some communities would find this more
attractive than others. If handled badly the economies would reduce its
adoption.

But all this turns on the key point that electronic ink must deliver
something with the same form factor, look and feel of the traditional book
rather than the sandwich boards it seems to deliver at the moment. 

Matthew


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ian Winship [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 05 January 2000 16:42
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: E Ink - Does it have a Future?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From the DIGLIBNS list:
> 
>  The Wall St Journal Interactive Edition (reprinted by ZDNet at
>  
> http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2416508,00.html?
> chkpt=zdnntop)
>  has a story on electronic ink. What do you think? Is this a 
> technology
>  that will come through and catch on? Will it have an impact 
> on libraries?
>  
>  Roy Tennant
> 
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Ian Winship
> Information Services, University of Northumbria at Newcastle  
> City Campus Library, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
> 
>                     ----------------       
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]                
> phone:  0191 227 4150      fax: 0191 227 4563 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  
> 


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